The global hospitality and tourism industry was one of the sectors most impacted by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). With the easing of pandemic travel limitations and other restrictions implemented earlier in the pandemic, the industry experienced a steady rebound in performance, but the increase in demand in 2021 and 2022 stressed supply chains and caused inflation to increase swiftly. This led to a slowdown in economic activity as the Federal Reserve tightened monetary policy. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the restrained recovery in 2021 was followed by an increasingly gloomier picture with greater risk levels in 2022 as the economic slowdown began to emerge.
The pandemic also produced a major disruption in the labor force which has been referred to as “the great resignation,” but an in-depth look at the facts of what happened to the labor force might be labeled as “The Great Reshuffle” because hiring rates outpaced quit rates since November of 2020. Many workers were leaving their jobs, but many were getting rehired elsewhere. The leisure and hospitality industry had one of the highest resignation rates, consistently above 4.5%, but then again the hiring rate was even higher. Within that category, food services, drinking places and hotels added the most employees. Staffing is still considered the biggest impediment to recovery of the hospitality industry, with about 100,000 jobs currently open in hotels across the nation. Overall, the pandemic has reshaped the hospitality industry and forced managers to rapidly change their strategies.
In the beginning of 2023, as many travelers began to move past pandemic concerns, travel demand worldwide remained strong. Consumer spending, which fell in late 2022, rebounded early in 2023. However, the turmoil in the financial markets, as a result of the banking crisis, came just as the economic recovery in the United States of America was gaining momentum. At a minimum, the crisis complicated the task facing officials at the Federal Reserve, who were trying to slow the economy gradually in order to bring inflation under control, but currently officials must scuffle with the risk that the Fed's efforts to fight inflation could be disrupting the financial system. Some economists believe that the current financial crisis can take a toll on hiring and investments as banks pulled back on lending and businesses struggled to borrow more. At the same time, the hospitality and tourism industry is facing challenges that are affecting both leisure and corporate travel. After strong demand for travel in the past year, the intent to travel has slowed down due to higher costs. Still, corporate travel is expected to show higher growth in 2023 and is projected to outperform leisure travel in terms of growth. However, high prices and delays continue to be challenges among business travelers.
Despite challenges impacting the industry, researchers continue to be productive. I am delighted to present Volume 37 Issue No. 1 of the IHR. In this new issue, we include 10 peer-reviewed articles.
In their research paper titled “Predicting locally grown food purchase intention of domestic and international undergraduate hospitality management students at a Canadian University,” Y.K. Conoly, M. Von Massow and Y.M. Lee examined how domestic and international undergraduate students at a university in Ontario, Canada defined locally grown food and predicted the factors that impacted their locally grown food purchase intentions. Study results reveal that there was a significant difference between domestic and international students on locally grown food purchase intentions. Findings also show that domestic students are more concerned about social factors (e.g. peers, university community and family) and interpersonal obligations as compared to international students when it comes to buying locally grown food.
In their research study “Online innovation and repurchase intentions in hotels: the mediating effect of customer experience”. G.K. Amoako, J.K. Doe and E.K. Neequaye used structural equation modeling to examine how customer experience mediates the relationship between online innovation and repurchase intention in the hotel industry in Ghana. Results from the analysis indicate that online innovation positively leads to higher repurchase intentions and better customer experience, confirming that customer experience leads to repurchase intentions. Accordingly, customer experience mediates the relationship between online innovation and repurchase intention in the hotel industry.
A research paper by M.B. Nyamekye, D.R. Adam, H. Boateng and J.P. Kosiba, “Place attachment and brand loyalty: the moderating role of customer experience in the restaurant setting,” examines the effects of place attachment on brand loyalty. The authors administered the questionnaire to customers (diners) of restaurants in Ghana, and used structural equation modeling to test their hypothesis. Their research further ascertains whether the effects of emotion-based attachment on brand loyalty are stronger for customers who have a positive experience with a restaurant brand. The findings establish that identity-based and emotion-based attachment enhances brand loyalty and that place dependence attachment promotes emotional bonding with restaurant brands.
In their research paper “A bibliometric review on the development in e-tourism research,” S. Singh and A. Bashar relied on literature review and bibliometric analysis in an attempt to identify the developments in the field of e-tourism over the past 16 years. Outcomes revealed that several branches of technological developments such as smart technology, virtual reality, augmented reality, digital architecture, ML and recommendation system have emerged into e-tourism research. Consequently, this research provides a varied platform to tourism researchers to advance useful insights. Moreover, industry practitioners, tourism authorities and government and non-government bodies may get useful insights from the developments in e-tourism and design better strategies and governance for the tourism sector.
In the article “Recreational benefits of wetlands: a survey on the Dal Lake in Jammu and Kashmir of India,” S.A. Shah and M.S. Islam used individual travel cost methods (TCMs) to assess the impact on regional development in terms of income and employment generation. A sample of 200 tourists was selected through an on-site survey on Dal Lake, and the demand for recreational visits and its value was estimated by employing the truncated Poisson regression model (TPRM) and un-truncated Poisson regression model (UTPRM). Results reveal that a high consumer surplus and recreational values of the lake are indicative of large demand for its recreational facilities. Accordingly, these findings are valuable to the policymakers for formulating sustainable management plans for its thoughtful use and tourism development.
H. Chen, Y. Green and K. Williams contributed an article titled “Does perceived manager support reduce hotel supervisors' emotional exhaustion? The mediating role of control over time and negative emotions.” Using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, their research study examines the impact of perceived manager support, perceived control over time and negative emotions at others on hotel supervisor's emotional exhaustion. It also investigated the mediating role of perceived control over time and negative emotions at others on the relationship between perceived manager support and hotel supervisors' emotional exhaustion. Findings disclosed that both perceived control over time and negative emotions at others were found to mediate the relationship between perceived manager support and hotel supervisors' emotional exhaustion.
A research paper by A. Fan, H.B. Van Hoof, X. Dou and A.L. Serrano, “The impact of linguistic style on customer satisfaction: a crosscultural empirical study in Ecuador,” followed the dual process theory and the cultural dimension of power distance to investigate the impact of the linguistic style of guest letter address forms on customer satisfaction across different service situations in hotel manager letters to guests. Using an experimental design research approach, the authors conducted a series of two studies to examine how customers' cultural values, linguistic style of address forms and service valence together influenced customer satisfaction. Study 1 examined the service success condition, and Study 2 investigated the service failure condition. The research results show that in the service success condition, customers follow their distinct cultural orientations when responding to the different linguistic styles. Conversely, in the service failure situation, as customers desire for expressions of respect, the level of satisfaction is lower when the casual address form is used in guest communications, regardless of customers' cultural orientations in power distance.
In their research paper “Understanding sense of safety and trustworthiness of tourism information among migrant visitors” A. Preko and T.F. Gyepi-Garbrah sampled 306 migrant visitors with the use of one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the Games– Howell post-hoc test and examined mean differences of nationalities, with regard to trust of tourism information and sense of safety among five different nationalities (United Kingdom, USA, Germany, China and India). Findings indicate that there were no significant differences in the sense of safety by the five nationalities. However, national culture characteristics (power distance and uncertainty avoidance) and trustworthiness of tourism information were significant predictors of sense of safety of migrant visitors.
A Viewpoint article by T.J. Koshore, “Digital disruption: the hyperlocal delivery and cloud kitchen driven future of food services in post COVID India,” presented an examination of the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and the food services industry in India. The study relied on qualitative and quantitative assessments from reliable market research reports from multiple agencies in the Indian setting, as well as news developments during the pandemic period. It presented an evaluation of the transformation of the food sector in India due to the pervasive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The indicators suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic and its long-term persistence would firmly modify food service consumption across India and will not only change how the industry is structured, but will also reshape how food is consumed into the future.
Using the context of a farm holiday venue in a research paper, “An investigation into the use of textual references to sunshine and fresh air in farm holiday advertising,” V.P. Magnini, R. Quendler and M. Uysal examined the influences of sunshine and fresh air references as components of marketing stimuli. The study empirically tested whether textual references can have significant influences on potential consumers' affective responses and interest in advertisements. This research paper also examines the potential influence of a textual reference to fresh air as well as fresh air in combination with sunshine. Results indicate that a reference to sunshine significantly improves consumers' affective responses to the advertisement and increases their interest.
I sincerely hope that you enjoy reading the articles in Vol. 37 No. 1 of the International Hospitality Review.
Andrew Moreo
Associate Professor, Florida International University
Interim Editor-In-Chief
International Hospitality Review
